Thousands take to the streets across the US to mark “counter-inauguration” on first day of Trump presidency

Mobilizations took place in over 80 cities on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to honor MLK’s legacy of struggle and mount movement against Trump

January 21, 2025 by Natalia Marques
Thousands march in Manhattan on the day of Donald Trump's inauguration (Photo: Wyatt Souers)

“We are here in the counterinauguration of the 47th president of the United States,” said Claudia de La Cruz in front of a rally of thousands in Washington Square Park. On January 20, the day of now-President Donald Trump’s inauguration, people took to the streets in over 80 cities across 40 states, including Washington DC, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Atlanta, Charlotte, Montgomery, Chicago, Houston, and New Orleans, to launch a mass movement pledging to oppose Trump’s “ultra-right, billionaire agenda”. 

A variety of working class and grassroots organizations worked together to mobilize for these demonstrations. These organizations include the Party for Socialism and Liberation, United Auto Workers Local 4811, the Palestinian Youth Movement, United Educators of San Francisco, Black Men Build, the Democratic Socialists of America, the People’s Forum, the ANSWER Coalition, the US Palestinian Community Network, UNITE HERE Local 2, Artists Against Apartheid, CODEPINK, the Los Angeles Tenants Union, and Dream Defenders.

“We are here in honor of Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King,” De La Cruz continued. “We stand in his legacy when he told us that today is tomorrow. That there is an urgency in this country to make revolution. That there is an urgency in this country to end the rule of billionaires.” 

Indeed, Trump’s inauguration was held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday in the United States intended to honor the legacy of the civil rights leader. Many were outraged that Trump would mark his first day as president on this day, given his loyalty to racist, right-wing billionaires. 

Harvard students demonstrate in Boston on January 20 (Photo: Micah Fong)

Richest cabinet in history 

Trump broke a record for donations for his inauguration, raising more than USD 170 million. Trump has raised so much money for his inauguration from the ultra-rich that some events have run out of room for V.I.P. tickets. Among these donors include Fortune 500 companies and individual billionaires such as Amazon, Ford, and hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin. Trump nominated an unprecedented number of 13 billionaires for his cabinet, making his administration set to be the richest in US history. 

During a speech in Washington, DC, following Trump’s inauguration, world’s richest man Elon Musk appeared to deliver a “Roman salute,” associated with Nazi Germany, not once, but twice. Musk has been tapped by Trump to run the newly-created “Department of Government Efficiency,” tasked with broadly slashing social services, government jobs, and regulations.

Labor fights back

Organizations of the working class remain defiant in the face of Trump’s loyalty to the ultra-rich. Grant Miner, President of UAW Local 2710, which represents student workers at Columbia, urged workers to spite Trump’s anti-union agenda and continue to organize unions at their workplaces, and called on workers already in unions to “make a union that fights for the working class.”

“One thing Trump and all his billionaire buddies have made clear is that they plan to fight unionization every step of the way,” Miner told Peoples Dispatch

Demonstrators hold banners in Washington, DC, where Trump was inaugurated as President (Photo: Party for Socialism and Liberation)

“That means installing administrative judges who are conservative, who will overturn previous court decisions to try to roll back worker protections, and make it harder to unionize,” the UAW leader described. Miner emphasized, however, that victory in the labor movement has not historically originated from increased worker protections. What has led to wins in the labor movement has been “worker power,” or collective struggle, according to Miner. 

“How is the labor movement planning to fight Trump’s billionaire agenda? We’re planning to organize more! We’re planning to organize places that have never been organized before,” Miner emphasized. 

Migrant workers vow to fight mass deportations

As Trump’s threatened mass deportations of 15 to 20 million migrants loom, immigrant worker organizations vow to fight back. Organizations such as the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) have even mobilized “Fire Relief Brigades” to help clean up the streets of Los Angeles following the devastation incurred by the wildfires. As described by Los Angeles-based NDLON volunteer Manuel Vicente, these fire brigades are a way to respond to Trump and the right’s anti-migrant attacks. “We respond to those attacks with love,” Vicente said. 

Demonstrators hold signs denouncing deportations in Atlanta (Photo: Elias Nail-DuPree)

“Day laborers have been the first responders in Los Angeles when fires are going on,” said NDLON organizer Jorge Torres at the rally in Washington Square Park. “This is an example of when the government doesn’t show up. Who shows up? We show up, the community shows up.”

Not for sale

In Los Angeles, residents are dealing with the twin crises of destruction from wildfires as well as post-disaster price gouging by landlords. The newly-formed organization “Altadena not for sale” showed up to a mass demonstration in Los Angeles on January 20. Altadena residents, hailing from a historically Black neighborhood, are organizing to ensure that longtime community members are not pushed out once the neighborhood is rebuilt post-wildfires. 

MJ, a survivor of both Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Katrina, attended the rally in Los Angeles and stood in solidarity with Altadena residents, sporting an “Altadena not for sale” t-shirt. “My entire family, my aunts, my uncles, my cousins, they lost everything in Hurricane Katrina,” MJ said

“Now when you visit New Orleans, it’s not the same as it was before Hurricane Katrina,” MJ said, referring to the way that developers took advantage of the destruction to buy up property and drive up prices, pushing out longtime residents. Altadena residents worry the same is in store for Los Angeles, and are determined to put up a fight against landlords and developers. “I’m here standing up for this now, because I have the voice and the ability to stand up for these cities and these communities and these neighborhoods,” MJ said.

Demonstrators in Los Angeles hold banner demanding full relief for wildfire victims (Photo: Bianca Carillo)